Exhale
by iPickleThings
Summary: On a dark rainy night, Amamiya Ren stumbles upon what he at first thinks is a body thrown on top of a trashpile in a dark alley. Upon further investigation, he discovers that it is an android, a persocom, left abandoned in the rain. Hoping to repair it and make a little money, he takes it home with him. Unfortunately, the persocom he picks up is more lifelike than he anticipated.


**AN:** Just a few things before you start reading.

First, you probably gathered from the summary, but I'm using the main character's name from Dancing in Starlight rather than the manga.

Also, this is based loosely in the Chobits universe. If you never read / watched / heard of Chobits it's not a big deal. All you need to know is that in Chobits there are androids that are called persocoms and most of the story revolves around people trying to decide if they are alive or not. This story deals with that as well.

* * *

It was raining the night he found him.

Tokyo was a relatively clean city compared to some others, but when it rained it revived every nasty smell that had long ago been stomped and baked into the pavement. It was worse when it was warm and the summer storm that night made everything smell and taste like hot garbage.

Ren was anxious to get back to his cramped attic apartment and out of the rain. He didn't mind the damp that much, but the smell in the more crowded areas was noxious. He hurried away from the train station and down alleyways and narrow streets toward his apartment building hoping to get out of the wet and the stink.

He wasn't sure what made him stop, looking back on it. If he had to guess, just the sight of a human form in the garbage was shocking enough to stop him in his tracks even when only glanced from the corner of his eye.

The rain was coming down in sheets, loud on the top of Ren's black umbrella. He stood for a moment stunned at the mouth of the tiny alleyway. It was piled high with black garbage bags, their plastic shiny from the light of the nearby streetlight and the relentless rainwater. Thrown on top like another piece of garbage was a person or at least at first glance it definitely looked like a person.

Ren crept closer, his heart pounding in his chest. The body was wrapped in white bandages and their form was somewhat androgynous. They had long limbs and somewhat wide hips but a flat chest. Their eyes were covered by white bandages, but their light brown hair was let loose. It was long enough to reach their shoulders. He didn't see any blood or injuries, but they were tied up with their elbows and knees secured together by the bandages. Not to mention that the person wasn't moving, their chest was completely still.

It was only when Ren was standing at the very foot of the pile of garbage bags, close enough to reach out and touch the body that laid on top of them, that he noticed the person's ears. Or, rather, the lack of them. Instead of normal human ears, the person had pale blue and white plastic pieces.

"Oh," Ren said mildly, his dread draining away somewhat.

Those plastic ears meant that the body in the trash was not a dead human body. It was an abandoned persocom or personal computer.

Persocoms were expensive and Ren wasn't exactly rolling in dough, so of course he brought it home. He doubted he would have any use for one. He got by just fine with his laptop.

They always struck him as a little eerie. Why did computers need to be person shaped? He hadn't run into nearly as many of them in the small town he had lived in before. When he moved to Tokyo to attend university and it had been a little bit of a culture shock. Most shops and other clerical positions were filled with persocoms in Tokyo. They were all pretty, polite, and never messed up your order. They were definitely convenient, but sometimes Ren found them a little off putting.

Ren had thought that he could maybe fix it up and sell it. It looked like it was basically undamaged and it looked so completely lifelike that he thought it must be an expensive model. The Persocoms that he met at the bank and in stores didn't look anything like this one. Even if they were shaped right and moved right, their skin looked more plastic and fake than the one he found in the alley.

Bringing it home wasn't fun. The thing was fucking heavy, much heavier than it looked. Not to mention that Ren couldn't both hold the umbrella and carry the persocom, so he ended up getting completely soaked during the last leg of his journey home. Once he got it home, he sat it down carefully against the wall next to the front door and then sat down heavily in front of it.

His apartment was just a tiny one room that had been built shortly after World War II and it showed. It was big enough for Ren to roll out a futon at night and to keep a low table in the middle of the room during the day. He had a tiny kitchenette with a single sink, but no stove. He had bought an electric hot plate to handle most cooking. He had a closet where he stored his futon during the day and a small closet like room that held only a toilet. He had no bathtub or shower so he had to utilize the bathhouse that was down the street which was luckily very affordable.

Even in the single ancient overhead light of his tiny apartment, the persocom was very pretty. Its hair was soaking wet, but he thought when it was dry it would probably be very soft. The same could be said of it's skin, which looked incredibly real rather than like the synthetic plastic of the models he was used to seeing. Carefully, Ren peeled the wet bandages from the computer's face. It had a nice face too, one he wasn't familiar with from the line of common ones available. Was it custom? Did such a thing as custom persocoms exist?

"Do you have an on switch or something?" Ren asked it, but it did not respond.

Ren spent a few minutes poking around at it. He opened the little plastic pieces that took the place of ears. He knew a lot of the ports were in there, so he thought maybe some switches would be hidden inside as well. Unfortunately, he had no luck there. He felt around the thing's neck and back of it's head to see if he could find a hidden switch but had no luck.

He looked down at the rest of its body but hesitated. He knew, logically, it wasn't real. It was just a computer programmed to act like a human and built to look like a human. But, something in him reacted with disgust at the idea of examining and touching its body while it was, for all intents and purposes, unconscious.

Sighing, Ren decided to leave it there for the time being.

* * *

"Hey, Ryuji. Do you know much about Persocoms?" Ren asked after class the next day.

Ryuji turned to Ren with a quizzical expression. Ryuji had been Ren's first friend after moving to Tokyo and starting at University and remained one of his closest. Despite looking and sounding like a punk, he was always friendly and accepting and kind which made it very easy for Ren to overlook any superficial flaws.

"Nah, man. Those things are way out of my price range," he replied.

"Hm," Ren hummed back. It was worth a shot.

"Why are you asking? I thought you said they were creepy."

"I found one last night in the garbage and I was thinking I might be able to fix it up and sell it," Ren replied shortly.

"Oh!" Ryuji's face lit up. They shared money troubles, so he wasn't completely surprised that Ryuji was interested in a scheme to make some quick money. "That's a great idea, man! Hey, why don't you ask Anne? I think she has one."

"She does?" he asked. He couldn't remember seeing Anne with one before.

"Yeah, I think she keeps it at home, though. She has one of the little ones," Ryuji responded, gesturing with his hands to indicate a size of about 4-5 inches.

"Oh okay. Thanks, Ryuji. I'll ask her."

"Anytime, man!" Ryuji grinned.

* * *

"I don't really know that much," Anne said doubtfully when he asked her that day during lunch.

"You have one though?" Ren asked curiously.

"Oh, yeah!" Anne said, lighting up. "I named her Haru and she's sooooo cute!"

"Haru's a cute name," Ren replied with a smile. Anne herself was very cute so it made sense that she would have a cute mini persocom.

Ren had met Anne through Ryuji. Apparently they had been friends since they were kids despite their differences. Ryuji had lived alone with his mom since he was young and had lived a little rough. Anne, in comparison, lived with both her parents in a penthouse. Both of her parents were in the entertainment industry and probably made an obscene amount of money.

Anne was looking every part the amateur model she was in a trendy layered outfit of black and pink with her thick ash blond hair piled up on her head and pinned in place with some big black barretts.

"Why don't you bring your persocom to class? Can't they record lectures for you and stuff?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, but I always worry that I'll drop her or someone will steal her," Anne replied with a frown. "I really like her and if something happened to her I don't think I could just replace her."

Ren frowned, but decided not to comment. Anne was a very compassionate person. He felt that if someone could develop sincere feelings about a computer, it would probably be Anne.

"I actually found a Persocom in the trash last night and I was hoping I might be able to fix it up. Do you know how you power them on?"

"Hm. They usually have a switch somewhere. Did you check around the ears and the back of their neck?" she asked.

Ren shook his head. "I checked all around the head, but didn't find anything."

"Maybe it's somewhere else on its body?" she suggested.

Ren frowned and though he doubted Anne would say anything negative to him about why he didn't check the rest of the Persocom, he decided to glaze over it anyway.

"Is there any other way to turn it on? Since it was in the trash I'm worried it might be damaged."

Anne frowned and seemed to think some more. "Well," she said slowly. "If you think it's damaged, you should probably take it to a store that sells them. They usually can repair them. Or, you can try hooking it up to another computer and reset it."

Ren immediately dismissed taking it to a shop. He definitely didn't have the money for that.

"How do you reset them?" he asked instead.

Anne frowned, but this time it looked more like disapproval.

"You can download some software to your laptop and then connect it to your laptop and it will do like a factory reset. But, any data that's on it, including anything it learned from before will be totally gone. It completely resets their personality."

"I can't afford to take it to a shop. If I can at least get it up and running again, that should be enough," Ren explained.

Anne's expression softened at that but she still looked a little troubled.

"Thanks a lot for all your help. Let me buy you lunch," Ren added.

Anne gave him a lopsided grin at that. "You literally just told me you're poor. I'm not letting you buy me lunch. If anything, maybe I should buy you lunch."

"I don't think my heart could take such a pretty girl buying me lunch," Ren replied with a sly grin.

"Wow, what a smooth operator," Anne replied with a snort.

Ren grinned back at her and only barely dodged the wadded up tissue she threw at his head.

* * *

That night he had to work late at his part time job and didn't get home until almost 10 pm. He decided he would still try to work on the persocom before he went to bed.

He hadn't moved it since he sat it down the previous night. The bandages and its hair had dried completely in the time since. It looked almost illicit, tied up and unmoving in his tiny apartment.

Ren tried to force those instincts down. It was a persocom, not a person.

He grabbed his old laptop and the charging cable that Anne had let him borrow. He found the software that she had recommended and downloaded it. It didn't take long to install and while it did he ran through a quick online tutorial on how to boot up a persocom via a connection.

He remembered the port he needed was located in the persocom's right ear port, so he opened the plastic ear cover and connected the USB. It didn't move, but a low humming did start to come from it. Ren assumed that was a good sign.

The program on his laptop started to dig through the files already on the persocom. Luckily, it was able to find a bunch of restore points had been created through the life of the computer. That was lucky for Ren. Restore points were created periodically by computers whenever a big change was made (such as a program being installed or uninstalled) so that if something went wrong you could take your computer back to a previous version.

Ren thought of what Anne had said about totally wiping out a persocom's personality by doing a factory reset on them. If he could help it, he would try not to do that. Besides, there were a lot of restore points so one of them had to work. Ren was surprised by how far back they went. He had assumed by its appearance that it was fairly new, but the restore points went back years.

Once the program finished loading the restore points, Ren selected the most recent one and tried to restore to it. After a few seconds of chugging along, his laptop returned the error:

"The System Restore did not complete successfully. The data and settings on your system did not change."

Ren frowned. That sucked. He tried the next one and after a few minutes of his laptop spinning he got the same error. The next three restore points returned the same error.

He looked thoughtfully at the tab marked 'Factory Reset'. He knew that if he completely reset it, that would probably fix it and he could sell it as if it were brand new. Anne's disapproving face and her comments surfaced in his mind's eye. He sighed, dismissed the idea and tried the next restore point.

This continued for some time. It seemed like all the restore points from the current year were corrupted. He got into the previous year and kept going back. He got all the way back to May before something different finally happened.

The progress bar got past where it had been getting stuck before. In fact, it kept going for almost twenty minutes before he got the below message:

"System Restore completed successfully. The data and settings on your system have been updated."

"Uh," Ren said intelligently before the soft humming from the persocom propped against the wall turned into an energetic whirring.

The persocom started twitching. It's fingers and toes flexed, then its legs and then finally moved up to it's torso. Its face was twitching too, as if it were stuck in an unpleasant dream, before it's eyes suddenly opened.

Ren leaned back as the persocom stared sightlessly at him. It's eyes were a kaleidoscope or soft oscillating pastel colors. It was more than a little disturbing to see those kinds of eyes in a perfectly human looking face.

Then, it blinked and instead was looking at Ren with completely human looking warm brown eyes. They shared a stunned moment before the persocom started to scream.

The next few minutes were chaos. The persocom was screaming and struggling against the bandages that were still restraining it from moving much. Ren was trying desperately to calm it down with little to no success. It was past midnight and it took almost no time at all for his neighbors to start pounding on his walls and ceiling yelling at him to shut up.

In desperation, Ren grabbed the persocom and pressed a hand over his mouth. It froze and stared at Ren in terror for long enough that Ren was able to quickly say. "Please stop screaming or I'm going to turn you off right now."

It was a bluff. Ren didn't know how to turn it off, considering he had never found the on switch, but hoped that the persocom wouldn't realize that.

The computer trembled under his hand but otherwise didn't make a sound. Ren let out a steadying breath.

"I'm going to take my hand away and we're going to talk. But, if you start screaming again, we won't be able to do that. Okay?"

The persocom didn't respond, but also didn't make any other sounds. Ren decided to take his hand away since he was at a loss as to what else to do. When he did so, the persocom stayed completely still and continued to stare at him.

Ren sat back and was silent for a long moment. He wasn't at all familiar with how persocoms should normally work, but he didn't think it was normal for them to start screaming as soon as you turned them on. Maybe he was in over his head.

"Where am I?" it asked after a moment.

Glad that he wasn't the one that had to steer the conversation, Ren quickly responded, "My apartment. Uh, I'm Ren Amamiya."

"Why am I here?" it asked angrily.

Ren frowned. He had never seen a persocom get angry before and he had watched them be treated pretty horribly before.

At a loss for what else to do, he decided to tell the truth.

"I found you in the trash last night about a mile away from here. You were wrapped up like this when I found you. I had to restore you from an old backup, so you're probably missing a lot of time."

It looked stricken for a moment before snapping. "What's the date?"

Ren told him and if possible its expression fell even more.

They sat silently for another moment, the persocom staring miserably at its knees and Ren staring at it as if the answers would just come to him if he thought hard enough.

Eventually, he went to the old cabinet he kept against one wall and rummaged inside until he came up with a pair of scissors. He turned to the persocom and found it staring at him with terror. He glanced at the scissors in his hand and then hastily explained, "I can cut you out of that stuff if you want?"

It looked at him doubtfully for a long while before giving in. Slowly, it let it's knees come down and away from it's torso, extending its knees toward him.

Ren approached slowly, not wanting to startle it more. Obviously, whatever kind of persocom this was, it was way more lifelike than anything he had ever come into contact with. Maybe its reactions were just simulations of human reactions, but it felt too real to dismiss immediately.

He cut the bandages looped around its knees first and then quickly moved out of the way. After its knees were free, the persocom leaned forward far enough that Ren could reach behind it and do the same to the bandages around its elbows.

"Do you have a name?" he asked while he worked at an awkward angle to cut the bandages around its elbows.

"Goro Akechi," it responded shortly.

'Goro,' Ren mouthed to himself. So, it was identifying as male, probably. It was definitely pretty enough to pass as female, but it also made him feel like less of a creep to be touching the persocom if it was supposed to be male.

After another second, Ren had freed the persocom's elbows and put the scissors back in the cabinet. He then rustled through another drawer and came out with a pair of sweatpants and a plain white t shirt.

"Here," he said, handing them to Goro.

Goro took them but remained sitting against the wall with the bundle of clothes in his hands.

"Um, the bathroom is over there if you want to change into those? You'll probably be more comfortable, at least."

Goro looked at him and his distrustful look was back. Ren wasn't sure if he could blame him. From his perspective he had probably gone from living in a posh house with a rich owner to suddenly in an apartment the size of a sardine can with a stranger telling him that he had found him in the trash. Regardless of how nice Ren was to him, he was sure that kind of reality would be hard to accept.

After a few moments of glaring, Goro yanked the USB cable out of his ear, got up quickly and darted into the tiny restroom. He shut the door behind him and then Ren heard the click of the latch.

Ren sighed and stared at his laptop. Maybe this had been a mistake. He had the feeling he had gotten himself into a lot more trouble than he wanted. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do about it at this point.

Deciding to figure out what to do in the morning, Ren changed into his own pajamas (a pair of linen pajama pants and another plain t shirt). He put his laptop away and then rolled the table out of the way against the wall. He then pulled his futon out of the closet and laid it down on the floor.

He could hear Goro fumbling around in the tiny restroom, probably struggling to get himself out of the tight bindings by himself in such a small space. By the time Ren was sitting on futon, the sounds had stopped. He waited and thought for a moment that maybe Goro wouldn't come out. Maybe he would hide in the bathroom for the rest of the night. After a few minutes of waiting, the door to the bathroom clicked and then slowly opened and Goro stepped out in Ren's borrowed clothes.

Ren's clothes didn't really fit him. Ren was taller and thinner than Goro, so in some places the clothes hung and in other they clung, all in the wrong places.

Goro carefully avoided looking at Ren and walked across the room the crouch down in the same spot by the wall that he had previously been in.

Ren frowned at him. Was he going to stay there all night?

"What do you usually do at night?" Ren asked.

Goro frowned and hugged his knees to his chest. "Charge," he answered shortly.

Ren got up and went to his backpack which he had already packed for the next day. He got the borrowed USB cable and then found an outlet converter in his school bag and handed both to Goro.

He hesitated before taking both and then looked around for an outlet.

"There's one by the window," Ren suggested, gesturing to the wall furthest from the door.

Goro frowned, most likely at how close that outlet was to Ren's head when he was lying in his futon. Ren didn't much care. It was true that there was no outlet by the front door where Goro was sitting. There were only two outlets in the whole room; the one that Ren had indicated and also one in the tiny kitchenette where Ren plugged in his hot plate and toaster.

Looking intensely uncomfortable, Goro moved to the outlet near the window and plugged in the converter and the USB cable.

Ren went to turn out the overhead light which left just the streetlights outside streaming through the thin curtains to light the room. It was still enough to see where he was going so he could pick his way back to the futon.

Goro was now crouched by the corner of the window, his arms wrapped around his knees again.

"Goodnight, Goro Akechi," Ren said as he settled down to sleep.

Ren didn't hear a reply, but he thought he saw Goro's worried brown eyes turn toward him.

* * *

The next morning Goro and some of Ren's clothes were missing. It looked like he took one of Ren's button down shirts, a pair of trousers, a pair of socks and Ren's only pair of dress shoes. He also found his front door unlocked and he knew that he had locked it the night before.

Ren was disappointed but not totally surprised. If Goro was as human as he seemed, obviously he wouldn't want to stay with a complete stranger. Ren thought he was likely going to try to go back home or hopefully to a friend's. Ren was worried about what might happen to him if he tried to gohome, considering that whoever owned him before appeared to have damaged him and threw him away. Regardless, he felt helpless to do anything about it. He wasn't Goro's real owner and didn't have any real claim to him.

As he ate his breakfast and got ready for his first class of the day, he gave up the whole experience up as a loss and tried to put it out of mind.

* * *

"How did it go last night?" Ryuji asked as they made their way to the canteen around lunch time. "Did you get her up and running?"

"Yep," Ren responded. He got in line for soba. It was hot and he wanted some cold noodles.

"Well!" Ryuji exclaimed, leaning on his shoulder. "How did it go? Are you converted to the ways of persocoms?"

Ren pulled a wry expression. Converted, no, but maybe he understood why people liked them a little more. If the personal ones were as realistic as Goro, he could understand having something like a dedicated friend at home waiting for you.

"I was able to restore him to a working backup. But, as soon as he turned on he started screaming at me. I was able to calm him down but when I woke up this morning he was gone. And, he stole my good shoes. So, no. Not converted," Ren responded.

Ryuji gave him a look like he was the oddest person he had seen in a long time which didn't surprise Ren very much. He felt like he was always reporting some odd experience or another to Ryuji. Last week he had told him about a cat with a yellow scarf that had stolen a slice of tuna off his kitchen counter and then ducked back out his open window. At least the cat hadn't stolen his shoes.

"Wow," Ryuji said after a moment, lagging behind as the line moved forward. "I guess it really was broken."

Ren shrugged and grabbed the first bowl of soba he saw.

"Aw, dude! Soba! I hate this stuff! It's so bland," Ryuji complained, sticking out his tongue.

"You didn't have to get in line with me," Ren replied.

"I wasn't paying attention!"

"Get in another line."

"You know I'm too impatient for that," Ryuji muttered while somewhat violently dropping a bowl of soba onto his tray.

* * *

Ren didn't have work that night, so he went out to eat dinner with Anne and Ryuji and then all three of them went to the library to study for a while. They all had different majors, so there were few subjects they could help each other with, but it was nice to have the moral support.

The sky was orange and purple by the time Ren got off the train near his apartment, but it was a lot earlier than he usually got home. He had successfully put Goro Akechi out of his mind for most of the day so he was taken aback when he found him sitting crouched against his door when he got to his apartment.

When Goro saw him, he stood up. He was wearing the same clothes that Ren had found missing that morning. Just like the clothes he had leant him the night before, Ren's dress clothes didn't fit Goro and obviously looked like they didn't belong to him. It didn't help that he looked a little scuffed up, his shirt and pants showing dirt and looking wrinkled.

There was a moment when the both of them stood staring at one another without saying anything before Ren took a deep breath and kept walking. He walked up to his apartment door, pulled out his keys, and opened his front door. He then stood aside and gestured for Goro to go in ahead of him.

Goro looked distrustful as he had most of the night before, but it was now tinged with embarrassment and maybe even shame. It made Ren feel like an asshole even though he knew he hadn't done anything wrong.

Once they were both inside, Ren turned on the overhead light and then went to start some tea. He started making enough for two people until he remembered that Goro couldn't eat or drink anything. He revised the amount of water to be enough for one cup and then went to sit at the table while he waited for the water to boil.

Goro hesitated in the entranceway before coming to sit across from Ren at the table.

"Did you try to go home?" Ren asked when it appeared that Goro wasn't going to say anything.

Goro's face crumbled, a mixture of anger and hurt rushing across his face before he was able to master it into a low grade frustration.

Ren took that as a yes. It also answered his follow up question about whether or not his return had gone well. Obviously, it had not.

"Do you want to stay here?" Ren asked next.

The frustration on Goro's face ratcheted up a few degrees before he mastered it into more a penitent expression.

"I don't have anywhere else to go," he replied, his voice hoarse and pinched.

Ren felt himself soften at that. He knew what it was like to not have anywhere else to go after your guardians turn you out. High school hadn't been a great time for him.

The tea kettle chose that moment to beep to indicate the water was heated. Ren got up and poured his tea before returning to the table.

"You can stay here," he said after only considering it for a moment.

Goro looked up at him in disbelief, like this was the absolute last thing he expected to hear.

Ren took a sip of his tea and it was way too hot, burning his tongue. He grimaced and carefully put the cup down.

"There will be conditions, though," he added.

"What conditions?" Goro demanded.

Ren frowned. "I haven't decided yet. But, you'll have to help out if you're going to live here."

"Help out," Goro repeated doubtfully. His tone indicated that he expected there to be some kind of catch.

"Yeah," Ren confirmed. "Unless you can help pay rent, you'll have to make up for it in other ways. Like, cleaning or cooking or helping me do laundry or something."

Goro was frowning at him like he was speaking a different language suddenly.

"If you do have a secret cache of money, you can just help pay rent. You don't have to clean and stuff," Ren offered doubtfully.

"That's all you want?" Goro asked.

Ren shrugged. "It's not like this is the Ritz. Besides, you said yourself that you have nowhere to go. It's not like I'm going to turn you out on the street."

"I'm not a person. You could sell me to someone and probably make enough money to move out of this shitty apartment," Goro said angrily.

Ren tilted his head a little as he let that sink in. Goro thought that he was worth enough that he thought he could move with the money he would make selling him?

"You seem pretty independent, if you can come and go as you please," Ren said slowly. "That being the case, I don't think I'm in the kind of position to pretend I can make decisions about your future. Besides, I thought you were long gone this morning. I wasn't exactly making long term plans."

Goro frowned and stared down at his lap. Ren tried his tea again and this time it was cooled down enough for human consumption.

"I don't have any money," Goro said after a moment.

"Are you okay with cleaning stuff?" Ren asked.

"Am I okay with it," Goro repeated, as if the phrase was ridiculous. Maybe it was. Ren was asking a computer if he was okay with helping him around the house.

Ren kept his peace, though. He'd rather hear it from Goro.

After a moment, Goro responded, "If it's just domestic tasks, I don't mind."

Ren took another sip of his tea before reaching across the table, offering his hand.

"It's a deal, then."

Goro stared at him with a searching expression before reaching forward himself and giving Ren's hand one firm shake.

"It's a deal."

* * *

"The persocom came back," Ren told Anne and Ryuji during lunch the next day.

"What?" Anne exclaimed with Ryuji doing much the same with a lot more expletives.

"Yeah. It surprised me too. He was waiting outside my apartment when I got home last night."

"Well, what-" Anne stopped and frowned. "Where did he go?"

"I think he tried to go home."

"Oh," Anne said sadly, making the same connection that Ren had the night before.

"Fuck," Ryuji added.

"Yeah, he looked a little roughed up. And, when I asked him about it he wouldn't say anything."

"That's really sad, Ren. But, also weird?" Anne said.

"I thought they weren't supposed to be able to disobey commands?" Ryuji asked, directing his question at Anne.

Anne frowned and tapped her bottom lip with a shiny red fingernail. "I didn't think so either. But, it is possible he's damaged. Maybe more than you expect."

"He seems to function okay. He's just difficult," Ren said.

Anne and Ryuji frowned at him before sharing a look.

"What do you mean by difficult?" Ryuji asked.

"He just has that kind of demeanor. Like, he definitely isn't going to do anything he doesn't absolutely have to. I've decided to treat him like a cat."

"Why are you treating him like a cat?" Anne asked.

"He just gives off those, 'I'm only tolerating you because you have something I want' vibes, you know? Besides, it worked yesterday, so I'm going to keep it up for now."

"What are you going to do now?" Ryuji asked.

"I told him he could stay with me as long as he helped out around the apartment," Ren explained.

"Uh, he's not like a roommate, dude," Ryuji said doubtfully.

"Well, if he's malfunctioning, maybe it's better to phrase it to him that way," Anne suggested. "Was he okay with that?"

"I don't think he liked it, but it's not like he has a lot of alternatives."

Anne frowned down at her chicken nuggets while Ryuji mostly frowned at Ren.

"Good fucking luck," Ryuji said again.

* * *

Ren worked again that night. He had warned Goro that he would be late because of that but hadn't gotten much reaction. He figured Goro would probably like having the apartment to himself for as long as possible, given that he hadn't shown any liking for Ren so far.

The sky was dark by the time he got home, light pollution making it impossible to see any stars even if he knew they were up there somewhere. He hadn't asked Goro to do anything before he left, thinking that he would give him a few days to adjust before he asked for him to do anything. So, he hadn't expected to see that his apartment had been scrubbed from stem to stern when he got in.

Ren froze in the entranceway with one hand still on the doorknob, struck by the smell of lemons and soap. The old wooden table shined with a luster it never had before, the tatami mats looked significantly cleaner, even the curtains and windows and walls looked like they had been cleaned.

Goro was standing with uncertainty by the kitchenette.

"You didn't leave any money so I couldn't buy any food and I couldn't clean everything with what you had under the sink, but I did my best," Goro snapped, already on the defensive.

"I didn't expect you to do anything," Ren replied honestly, his eyebrows still climbing toward his hairline as he hesitantly toed off his shoes and stepped into the apartment.

"Why?" Goro asked. "You thought I didn't know how to clean."

"I didn't ask you to do anything," Ren said.

"Did you think I would just sit idle all day?" Goro wrinkled his nose at the thought.

"I don't really know what persocoms do with their free time. Play minesweeper?"

Goro gave him an unimpressed look.

"Thanks for cleaning. This is really over the top. If you want to buy some stuff tomorrow I'll leave money with you. How much do you need?" Ren asked.

Goro looked chagrined at Ren's offer of money after he had left his aggression completely unmatched and ignored.

"How about 5,000 yen to start with? If you need more later I can give you some."

"I don't understand you," Goro said quietly.

Ren thought for a moment that he wasn't supposed to hear that, it was said so quietly. But, he had heard it, so it was probably best to acknowledge it.

"What don't you understand?"

When Goro glanced up at him from staring at the gleaming kitchen counter he looked legitimately upset. His brow was scrunched up and his eyes were wide, his mouth pressed thin.

"You don't owe me anything," Goro said.

Ren tilted his head. He wasn't sure he agreed with that statement, but before he could say anything, Goro continued.

"The only explanation for why you're being so accommodating to me is because you intend to ask for something later. I want you to just ask me now and stop playing with me!"

Ren could see that Goro's hands were in fists at his sides, his hands flexing periodically.

Ren chewed his lip. He felt like he had to be careful about how he answered this. But, he also felt like Goro wasn't going to appreciate any kind of finessing of his feelings. The direct honest approach had worked for him so far, so he decided to stick with that.

"Maybe I owe you an explanation, then," Ren started. He watched Goro brace himself for something, though Ren wasn't sure what he was expecting.

"I do believe that I am responsible for you to some extent." Goro's brow wrinkled more and he opened his mouth but Ren put up his hand to indicate he should wait. "I'm the one who picked you up and dragged you home. If I hadn't done that, you would have been hauled off to the dump and never been reactivated and you wouldn't be in this situation at all. Though, whether this or the other situation is better I'll leave up to you to decide."

Goro frowned but kept his mouth closed.

"So, whatever happens as a result of me bringing you home and restoring you to this version of yourself is my fault and therefore my responsibility to some extent.

"I'll be honest with you, my original intention had been to sell you." Goro tensed again but didn't say anything. "As you can see, money isn't something I have an abundance of. I didn't and still don't know much of anything about persocoms, but I was willing to put in the work to fix you if there was a pay off involved. Maybe it's my own ignorance about persocoms, but you seem awfully life like for a computer."

Goro's frown intensified.

"It could be that I'm ignorant, it could be that you're especially advanced, it could be that I'm easily fooled by good programming. Who knows. But, I find that you have convinced me that you are alive to some extent. As such, you deserve a certain amount of respect. That's how I'm treating you."

Goro's frown didn't relax, neither did his shoulders. However, his hands were flat on his thighs by the time Ren was done. Ren didn't know how to interpret that.

After enough time had gone by that he was starting to feel awkward, Ren added, "I am open to questions."

"You're an idiot," Goro responded flatly.

"That is not a question," Ren said with a lopsided smile.


End file.
